Page 34 of Crossing the Line
“I’m better than okay. In some weird way, I think I needed that.”
He nodded in agreement. “Let’s just make sure neither of us needs it again in the future.”
“Deal. Out of our systems.” If something like that could ever just disappear. “But while we’re making deals, I want to know what’s going on with my security quandaries. I don’t want to have to get information from Kate or wait until you’re done briefing my parents—who probably weren’t too concerned. My safety is my business.”
Xavier sat straighter and took in a breath. “That’s fair. In my defense, I didn’t mean to leave you in the dark like that. I got distracted, first by Kate calling to tell me Ganim messaged you from the museum and then by—”
“A cute production assistant?”
“Asourceat the network who had been shooting crowd shots from the right angle all afternoon. I wanted the footage of Ganim in the crowd.”
Waverly winced. “And I accused you of flirting instead of doing your job.”
“I was flirting, but it was in the line of duty.”
“I was a tiny bit jealous,” she confessed.
“I was jealous of Wrede.”
“If it’s any consolation, you’re a much better kisser.”
“I’d bet that I’m better at a lot of things,” Xavier muttered.
“A lot of things that are off the table,” Waverly reminded him. “Oh, God. This is going to be awkward. First I didn’t want you around, and now I’m going to be thinking about how good it felt when you—”
“Don’t even think about finishing that sentence,” Xavier threatened. “We need to make one more deal.”
“What are the terms?” Waverly asked.
“You can’t run from me again. It turns me into a predator.”
Waverly caught her breath and held it. “That feels like a commitment.”
His grin was wicked this time. “It is. I need you to trust me, Waverly.”
He was asking for the nearly impossible. “We’ll play it by ear.” It was as far as she was willing to go.
“Fair enough.” He rose and crossed the short span of concrete to her. “If the negotiations are over…” Xavier held out his hand.
They shook solemnly and Waverly tried not to remember what it had felt like minutes before to have those big, hard hands on her.
“Now, let’s talk about why you’re sitting on a motorcycle in Kate’s garage when I told you to stay home.”
Waverly heaved a sigh. “You’re just going to get mad again.” Although that might lead to another kiss, so it wasn’t entirely a lose-lose.
“Try me,” he said.
“Don’t you ever just want to be someone else? Even just for an hour?”
He crossed his arms, considered her. “Everyone does.”
“Well, I spend my entirelifebeing someone else. Whoever my agent, the studio, the director, the journalist, my parents need me to be. Sometimes I want to be just me.”
“Who are you?”
She shrugged her shoulders in a quick lift and drop. “I don’t know, but I’d like to find out.”
“And you’re going to find out on a one-hundred and seventy-five-horse street bike?”
